Moving soon

Hey guys, its been a while, so I hope you're all doing well.

I need to ask u for a favor. I went ahead and got married (wish me luck) and my wife lives 1 hour and 45 minutes away in Chattanooga, where ill b moving to by the end of next week.
I remember a lot of good threads here describing or talking about the process of moving an aquarium, but since my computer crapped out on me and my tapatalk search is not yielding any results, I need to ask u all the favor of running that search and to please link me to the thread/s that describe this process. I'm freaking out... and for more than one reason... my aquarium is a 55 gallon w/ close to 100lbs of rock, 80lbs of sand and I also have a 30gal sump/fuge with 30lbs of rock and 20lbs of sand AND my corals r attached to the rocks on the display tank..... plus, I got married!

I'm not sure how to proceed with the moving part as far as my aquarium goes, everything else is under control.

Any links will b very much appreciated!





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Congrats Bro!!What a good looking couple you make!!Wishing you and your new wife the best of luck. Missed having you around man.8)
Heres some excellent links.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/complete-guide-moving-fish-tank-135074.html
http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-aq...g-aquarium-transferring-bigger-one-54342.html
Good luck and if you have any more questions shout em out. Moving tanks is my specialty!!

 

Thanks a lot, vinny!

Good to know I can count on your experience with the matter. What I figured out so far is that I will need a lot of totes from Walmart for storing water, rocks and livestock. The one little guy that keeps me worried is my burrowing goby and his little tiger shrimp sidekick... hope I won't hurt them when removing the rock.

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congratulations and good luck!! if you did not get a bigger tank as a wedding gift perhaps it could be time to treat yourself to an upgrade. set the new tank up and once cycled (assuming you have the means and time to do this) gradually move your old inhabitants to their new home. this is just my 2 cents cus if i think of the idea of moving my tank it makes me want to cry with the amount of work and array of things that could go wrong.

but again just m2c

 

Yes I can understand your stress. I wouldn't worry about transporting all your water. Really all you need to transport is enough to keep your animals alive during the move. However if you don't want to make a bunch of new SW when you arrive at your new home then totes (Rubbermaid Garbage cans are also ideal for this) are the way to go. The most important thing is to keep your bacteria alive which live on hard surfaces.(LR,Sand) Since you aren't moving very far battery operated air pumps should be fine otherwise I suggest a power inverter for your vehicle.

 

I do have a converter for my car, but I doubt it will b able to keep up with more than the water pumps.... I can't really upgrade @ this time, even though I would love to, the recent changes did not affect only my marital status, but my bank account as well. Two things that keep me worried about the move are the ability to keep my water cool enough in the back of the moving truck... I know I'm not going far and it should stay within range, but still a bit concerned with this heat wave we've been having lately. My plan for that obstacle is to freeze a few 2 little bottles of water ahead of time and float them in the totes if temp goes past 82f.

The second issue r the 4+ inches of sand @ the bottom of my tank... I'm hoping to b able to leave them there and that the tank won't crack when moving it. Do u think I'll b better off removing the 80 lbs of sand or will the tank hold? It's a 1/4 inch glass.

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Congratulations Magus!!

I can not tell how many times I moved rocks in my tank and never once hurt the shrimp or the goby. Made them mad but for some reason even if they got completely buried they always made it out safe and sound.

Good luck

 

that's a tough one with that much sand... i've moved a 55 with sand a couple times but i probably only had a 2'' sand bed... maybe even a little less... If two people can easily move it without straining i'd say you'd be ok. Otherwise i'd say remove maybe 1/2 of it. I don't know about putting it back in though...
Questions/Suggestions
Have you kept up on your maintenance lately? Primarily the water changes...
If you've slacked off on that then your water has probably lost a lot of its buffering capability. If that's the case i'd highly suggest mixing up fresh SW once you get there (preferably before, or find a source of pure room temp water which lately could easily be 75-80*). I ask because i'm convinced this is what caused my crash after my last move. (plus i'd done it a few times already and think i got complacent...)
Make sure you keep an eye on your parameters, especially the PH and ammonia. I'd check everything once it's ready for livestock... and then the PH/Amm again after a few hours of running... if everything's fine at that point then maybe again the next day.

Idea if you get to hot on the way... i don't see why you couldn't buy a bag of ice to throw in either... that water will be filtered (we drink it) and especially if you're not going to be adding it to your tank you should be fine... if you're still worried about contaminants you could put it in a double bagged trash bag or something, should reduce the risk of the melting water getting into the sw.

lets see. on the fresh sw topic, if the fresh water is cold and has to be warmed up...
1. If you can get a few 5gallon jugs of the stuff and bring with you in the truck that'll heat it up and be ready to go for ya!
2. If you need to heat up water in a hurry... Either boil some of the fresh water and add to the rest before mixing in the salt or pour it (VERY CAREFULLY) into a gallon jug using a funnel. The jug will deform a little from the heat but should hold together enough for the lid to go on and not leak... using an oven mit then float the jug in the water... 1 jug*10min=5-10* increase if my memory serves... Please just don't burn yourself as this method isn't exactly the safest... but it works.
3. ummm do this before the wedding or well... maybe after... idk... this is going to be one looooong day. Def don't want to be rushing to get to the airport for your honeymoon. Figure 2 hours for tear down... 2 hours for driving... and at least another 2-4 for setup, more if you hit any snags with say the water temp/parameters... and then plan on being around to monitor the tank closely for at least the next 12-24 hours. Would not want to leave and head back to your old place only to return to a dead tank... that would be sad
4. Con in some friends with free beer and pizza or better yet, frags if they're fellow reefers. More hands the better/quicker it will go.
5. i'm gonna steel this one from corailline, she mentioned something about putting down plastic wrap or a towel over the sand bed to keep it from blowing up while adding water... i think i'd do both as i've tried plastic wrap before and it didn't really stay in place by itself but a towel over it may... nothing sucks more than itching to scape your tank that you can't see an inch into...


Oh and Congrats on the new wife toO! Hope she enjoys the hobby

 

Cheryl, I'm gonna have to dig the shrimp and goby out of the sand bed? :'-( I know the answer is obvious... I guess I didn't think about that part. New water will b needed to control nitrates after moving the sand bed around, I suppose.

I'm still trying to calculate and figure out the containers and their capacity for storing my rocks, corals and water. Any tips on the type of container? I'm planning to get them @ Walmart since its going to b the cheer option. Anything in particular to look for when choosing them?

Thank u everyone for your helpful advice!

-Mag.

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Rubbermaid garbage cans work very well and are a bit stronger then storage totes. They also come in a wide variety of sizes. Home Depot or Lowes should have them.Not sure about Walmart.